My Little Chief Smoker has been very busy since this past deer season. While I do like to package and prepare back-straps, tenderloin and roast for future meals, the majority of the meat from this years harvests went into the jerky pile.

My technique is to slice pieces clean to remove any sinew or cartilage and fill a gallon zip lock bag.

Venison Jerky and Backstraps with Old Hickory

I’ll add approximately 2 cups of soy sauce, 1 cup of honey or maple sugar and some heavy splashes of garlic powder, chili powder, salt and pepper and some chili flakes. It’s best to let it all marinate 24 hours in the refrigerator with a flip or two to make sure all pieces get even coverage.

Next it goes into a strainer for a few minutes so that pieces can be lifted out without them dripping marinade and they are placed onto the racks of my Little Chief for smoking. If not complete dried I’ll place the pieces into the refrigerator or leave them in a dry environment and in a breathable paper bag so moisture can continue to escape.

Like this:

If you follow my blog you may recall that I made some Hen of the Woods Jerky that came out delicious. Well, I tried the same recipe with Oyster mushrooms and it did come out tasty but Hen wins easy for texture and flavor.

To make the mushroom jerky, I boiled pieces for 10 minutes, strained and placed them in a marinade overnight. The marinade was a mix of honey, chili powder and soy sauce. The jerky went in the dehydrator the next day at a low temperature for about 8 hours until it felt right.